One last visit in CO

Before leaving Colorado, we had one last person to visit. My good friend from Boy Scouts and junior high, Larry, lives in Aurora now. He had never met Mason before we drove out for a visit.

I don't think Larry will forget Mason soon. For some reason Mason kissed Larry's front porch twice before we left.

On the way back to Illinois, we drove through Nebraska and Iowa. Mason was good again, though he now recognizes Rest Areas and would get upset if we passed one by. He also insisted on using a public toilet for the first time after dinner at a Peoria restaurant. Towards the end of the trip, I think he was losing his mind a little bit.

Our last morning in Vail

Eventually it was time to leave Vail behind and head back to Denver. Just when Mason had everything figured out.



We went for a little walk before leaving. Another walker told us that we just missed seeing a bear wander down the valley! We decided to risk going to the park anyway.

As sad as we were to leave, the highway offers more great views of the valley.

Mason missed most of the scenery.

Beaver Creek, Co

We had one day of bad weather on our trip. That day we went to another ski village, Beaver Creek.

First Joey made us breakfast. He is a great cook and obviously has some advanced skills.

Zoe was kind enough to take a picture of us near the Beaver Creek ski lift.

Mason did very well on our trip, but that afternoon his lack of sleep caught up with him. So we stayed inside while it rained/snowed outside and Julia, Zoe, and Joey drove back to Denver.

More Vail pictures

We visited Vail Village on our trip. Being off-season, it was mostly empty and many of the stores were closed. Julia and Mason kept us entertained though.

Mason looked like quite the tourist.

Julia had no such problem.

One of the highlights of the trip for Mason was probably our trip on the Vail bus. He was amazed the entire ride.

Joey, Zoe, and Julia are some fine looking Gentrys.

Zoe decided that it would be fun to celebrate Julia and Mason's second birthdays again. She bought a few presents for them to open and we lit candles on cupcakes for them to blow out. Julia couldn't believe the amount of drool that came out of Mason's mouth.

Then she couldn't believe how fast he ate it. We didn't even get a picture.

East Vail, CO

We spent three days in East Vail, CO at a house co-owned by Joey and Zoe. It was in a beautiful location next to Gore Creek.

Here's Julia waiting for some strawberries.

Of course, Mason had to join her on the counter.

Later we went out and enjoyed the porch next to the creek. Mason even got to throw a snowball.

The Denver Zoo

We are extremely grateful to my cousin Joe and his family, Zoe and Julia, for letting us stay with them in Denver and in Vail.

Mason took to Julia very quickly. They watched a little TV while we got ready on our first morning there.

Julia went on to her last day of school for a while and we went to the Denver Zoo. Mason really enjoyed looking at the monkeys, but was a little scared by the sea lions.

Here are a bunch of pictures from that day.

To the KC Zoo

Jeni and Liz went to a baby shower one morning while we were in KC so Casey and I went to the KC Zoo.

Didn't the gals look nice?

Mason looked pretty cool that day.

The elephants were the first animal we came upon, and probably the favorite.

The lions were sleeping close to the glass, which was pretty cool.

We had an excellent visit to the zoo, and to KC. Many thanks to Casey, Liz, and Ainsley (and Brett the Golden Retriever) for their hospitality. You should check out their blog (click on Ainsley's name down on the right) and our flickr page (click on the flickr badge to the right) for more pictures.

Vacation time

Mason, Jeni and I took a week-long vacation out to Denver via Kansas City. We were a little worried about the cost and length of the drive, but everything worked out great. We had good weather and Mason behaved 99.5% of the time (even during the car ride).

We spent the first weekend of our trip in KC with some college friends (purveyors of a fine blog themselves). We visited the downtown market Saturday morning while waiting for a table for breakfast.

Liz, Casey, and Ken squinted while Ainsley and Mason had a silent conversation.

Mason and Ainsley found ways to entertain themselves while waiting.

After a short warming-up period, Mason and Ainsley got along quite well.

They shared snacks, toys, and even laps.

Happy Mother's Day

Mason and Jeni celebrated their third Mother's Day on Sunday.

We all went to a brunch held by Jeni's mom for family.

From left to right are Jeni's grandmother, Gene; Jeni; Jeni's mother, Hollie (aka Bubba); and Jeni's aunt, Jamee.

Mason got Jeni a CD of music that they both love to dance and dance to. Their music is a little weird....

Mason's turned 2!

Mason turned two last Saturday and we celebrated with family at the Morton Arboretum.

Mason, Joe, and Corey posed for a picture...

...before being attacked by a spider.

They survived to play up in the trees on the bridges.

Mason even convinced his Bubba (who is afraid of heights) to walk across.

Other people got pictures of everyone at the party, but this shows only half of the attendees.

After running around all morning Mason was too tired to walk back to the picnic area. So he rode on his Aunt Amy's shoulders.

Mason had help from Joe and Corey opening his presents.

I didn't get any pictures of Mason blowing out his candle, but I did take video. I'm just to lazy to put it on the computer right now.

Mason's first second birthday party

Mason had his first second birthday party last week along with his friends Wren (born on 5/12) and May (born on 5/10, same as Mason).

Mason likes to hug, and May likes to be hugged. So that works out nicely.

They look ready for the high school dance. Not for a few more years....

Jeni made cupcakes and lit candles so the kids could blow them out.

Mason was good and waited before blowing, though it doesn't look like he enjoyed it very much.

Then the camera battery died, so I couldn't take any pictures of all of the kids bouncing off the walls because of their sugar high.